Wild camping is one of those things that many people want to do, but are scared of trying as they don’t know what to expect.
It doesn’t help that the internet is bare (for once!) of information on the matter, and there don’t seem to be any good guides or tips anywhere – probably because it’s ‘technically’ illegal.
Having wild-camped with my sister and friend for the first time in France for 2 weeks, this summer (’09) I’m fairly clued up as to the dos and don’ts and also a lot less scared as to what might happen!
Here’s a recap of my experiences;
Camping Spots
The Good
- Picnic (or Pique-nique in French) spots
- Lakes & Other geographical features
- Forests & Forest Track
- Farmers!
These are generally quite easy to find, and often offer great camping spots with benches for cooking / eating and sometimes toilets! Most of the times we followed a picnic sign we ended up in a secluded spot that was generally quiet after 20h00.
Tying in with the idea of picnic spots, these areas generally have a fair number of picnic spots close by. If not, they can still be good options. Lakes and other large geographical features tend to be away from built up areas and offer spectacular places to camp for the night.
Don't worry about the signs
Another good one here, as there’s shelter and they’re often pretty close to life so you’re not stuck out in the middle of nowhere. You do need to look out for signs of activity though! A busy forest being cut for logging is not good (see below!)
We only ever did this once and it turned out well. If you’re ever stuck, just go knock on someone’s door (hopefully you can speak the language!) and ask if you can camp or if they know of anywhere to go. We did this one night and were directed to a nunnery – the best camping spot we found!
Camping at the nunnery
The Bad
- Tracks or People’s driveways
- Anywhere showing recent signs of activity
Yes, as stupid as it might sound this did happen. You’d probably think “who in their right mind would camp next to someone’s house, on their land?” and the answer would be YOU, if light was fading, you were hungry and just wanted somewhere to sleep.
We came across these spots a few times. Vineyards, forests with logging going on are all not good! This is really only relevant for places you *shouldn’t* really be. Picnic spots show signs of activity, but are generally accepted for camping.
This brings up the important point that you shouldn’t leave it too late to start looking for camping spots. We did several times, and it mostly meant an uncomfortable night’s sleep (although it did pay off once, leading us to the nunnery!)
Transport
Now we did all of this with a trusty 306 car and it would have been hell without it.
I guess you could do it on foot, but it would make life a lot more difficult – if you found yourself in a dodgy area with dusk approaching you’d be stuffed.
Accommodation & Cooking
We invested in Quechua (from Decathlon) pop-up tents which, after 2 weeks of setting up camp at dusk and leaving at dawn were a godsend (literally take 10 seconds to put and AND down!). I’d recommend these tents to anybody who’s camping anywhere; they’re cheap and extremely cheerful.
We also bought a portable gas stove – not one of the cheap screw-on tops for gas canisters, but the more sturdy black-box gas stoves for ~£12.99.
One of the Campingaz CP250 gas cartridges (long, tall and thin) would last about 3-4 hours of cooking, just over a week.
Incase you’re worried. These CP250 gas cartridges, as well as other CP206bp cartridges can be bought in France, and I guess most of Europe.
Facilities
Generally, we didn’t have many problems with being smelly or dirty – we’d stay in a campsite every few days to clean up, or go to a beach and wash. In France there’s almost always a shower at the beach.
Outcome
I’d recommend wild-camping to anyone. You won’t get pestered by the law enforcers as long as you’re tidy and quiet.
It’s a great experience, and best of all – it’s free!
Thanks for publishing this. We are off for 7 weeks to France & Italy with our car and tent and are intending to “wild camp”. Just the idea of really getting away from it all and just the two of us camping in a beautiful peaceful space in nature to me would be a dream come true. I hope it works out without too much hassle from the local law enforcement, official or unofficial (the later usually being the most upset with you). We’re set up for camping wild with a tent that’s quick to put up & down (though not as quick as yours!!), solar showers (even bought a shower you can plug into your car lighter socket which I can’t wait to try out), and most importantly a fold up shovel for those moments when there is no toilet so at least we can bury any evidence and not mess up any beautiful spots for anyone else! 2 days to go until the adventure commences!!
Thanks alot for this article, we are going to south west france this August 2010 and were looking for some wild camping. We both surf and i feel this would just add to the whole free concept of surfing.
I cant wait to try it out and i guess if we find a gem of a place we can just return each night and maybe even make a guide as to where we pitched up and post it on here.
thanks again.
Wow, that’s really cool. I love the idea of wild camping. Need to surely try it out. Thanks a bunch.
A room-mate urged me to check out this page, brill post, fascinating read… keep up the good work!